The Librarian, Her Lover, And Everything In-between

3. 4

      

        Red pulled to a stop in front of the library. For sometime, we both sat silently, watching the teens work. In that time, two huge shelves had been carried out of the library to join the other twelve that lay flat on the lawn. I decided that the children deserved a break and made to open the door.

     "Once all this is done, Anne, you should come catch up with us, your friends." She picked her nails then inspected them before turning to face me. "I mean it's been a long time, you know. You left town as quietly as you arrived."

"Yeah. Um, I've heard you, I'll see what I can do." I opened the door and got out. I called a black haired girl and her friend to come help me with the coolers.

    "Oh, Anne?"

I stopped in my tracks and turned to face Regina.

"Greet Jessica for me, if it wasn't for her, I would not have known you were in town." She smiled.

___

"Okay, guys, break time. Stop what you're doing and gather around," I yelled, effectively bringing them to a halt. They immediately gathered around and I proceeded to count them. They turned out to be twenty-seven instead of twenty-six.

     "Marc decided to join us," one of the boys—Damien—said.

"Okay," I drawled. "Thankfully, I thought about how unpredictable teenagers could be and I brought extra. Is there anyone else I should know about?"

    "No," they chorused.

"Good. I also forgot to bring a blanket for the floor—"

"There probably wasn't even need for it," a voice piped up. It was Lexie, the smallest of the girls, she reminded me of Thelma in Scooby Doo. "The floor is clean already."

      "Yeah. We could just sit on the floor. I hope you forgot to bring plates, so that we'd also eat from the floor."  I think that was Marc.

    "Is that sarcasm?" I asked, a mix of emotions flying through me. I had never been able to tolerate rudeness from anyone and was usually quick to react. These were teenagers that had volunteered to help me, and so, I was willing to overlook a few things.

     "Marc can't be sarcastic to save his life. It's his way of ... complementing."

"I'm sorry if that came out as sarcastic," the boy said, an accompanying sheepish smile in tow.

     "No problem. Fine then, everyone sit, I'll dish the food."

___

The teenagers ate their food as they joked about things that happened in their school. I found most if the jokes funny and even learned about each of them.

       My highschool days weren't as nice as theirs was, at least for me it wasn't. There'd be a number of my mates who found highschool memorable, not me though.

    "Okay guys, thanks for helping me today. I've been told that you'll be paid, so I'll gather the money and Jessica can come give it to you guys. Is that okay?"

    "Yes, it is," Jessica replied.

"Good. I'll still need your help when I have to return the shelves back inside the library—"

    "Why not now?"

"I need to get rugs for the library, as well as totally give it a make over. It needs repainting and, I need to do something concerning the shelves. In summary, I have a few plans for the library.

"I'll let Jessica know when I'm ready, then she can get back to you all. Before then, your money will be ready. Is that okay?"

      Choruses of 'yes' filled the air. They immediately started gathering up and soon, the library was deserted.

___

Whoop whoop. Finally, the library is coming back to life.

     Also, there's a surprise for you for reading up till this point. We're going to go back in time to find out why Cohen left town. She told me herself.

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